Jaylynn Nash-Imagn Images
During Christen Press’ recent rehab from a series of knee surgeries, fans would approach her and remind her the number of days it had been since she last played soccer. Her bigger concern was how many days it had been since she scored a goal.
Saturday marked 854 days since Press had scored a goal. That was June 11, 2022 in Louisville, the same night tore the ACL in her right knee.
Saturday was her seventh game back after multiple surgeries, and at 25 minutes of play plus stoppage time, it was her longest appearance yet. In the 7th minute of stoppage time, she stamped her return with a dramatic goal that JP Dellacamera on the ION broadcast correctly exulted: “Christen Press is back.”
“It’s so funny how these things go that you want to do so bad,” Press said after the match. “I couldn’t event tell you how the goal went. I have no idea. It felt like an out-of-body experience. I’m going to back and watch it and I hope it’s a really, really good goal and I hope I’ll be like…
